White House to cede Benghazi documents in Brennan fight

The White House is preparing to cede more ground to Senate Republican foes and hand over documents related to the Benghazi attacks to try to secure the confirmation of John Brennan to run the CIA, POLITICO has confirmed.

After releasing official timelines, an investigation and sending Cabinet officials up to Capitol Hill for hearings, now the Obama administration has agreed to surrender email messages between top national security officials that discuss how to describe the Sept. 11 attack, a Senate aide confirmed Friday evening.

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McCain, Graham, Ayotte to hold up Brennan over Benghazi

Graham: 'No confirmation without information'

The documents will be sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Brennan confirmation.

Asked about an earlier report from The Associated Press, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to confirm that documents were being handed over, saying, "We are having conversations with members of Congress about their requests and we will continue those conversations."

Key Republican senators had demanded the additional White House disclosures about the attacks as a condition of moving forward on Brennan.

"The confirmation process should be about the nominees and their ability to do the jobs they're nominated for," Vietor said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the documents would mollify two of the White House’s biggest critics on Benghazi, Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who have seized every opportunity to fault the White House over the attacks.

McCain and Graham have accused the White House of a cover-up worse than Watergate, and the storm of criticism led Obama’s first choice to become secretary of State, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, to bow out earlier this year.

The September attacks led to the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

Reid Epstein and Manu Raju contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 6:49 p.m. on February 22, 2013.